Orlando,
Florida (July 2018) – The Law Firm of Halscott Megaro, P.A. has announced that
attorney Patrick Megaro has filed a petition in the United States Supreme Court
to challenge Corvain Cooper’s sentence of life without parole under the Federal
“Three Strikes” law. The petition was filed by Cooper’s attorney in the Supreme
Court on July 6, 2018, asking the Court to stop the injustice of mandatory life
sentences for non-violent drug offenders.
Explains
Corvain’s attorney who filed the petition, Patrick Megaro: “In the legal realm,
you have to present the issue as a legal query. In this case, the official
query presented to the U.S. Supreme Court is ‘Whether a Petitioner Who Was
Sentenced to Life Without the Possibility of Parole, Which was Enhanced By Two
Later Invalidated State Convictions, May Apply for Resentencing …’ The reality
of the situation is that drug law reform, especially marijuana reform, is at
the forefront in many state legislature’s agendas. Marijuana is now legalized,
decriminalized, or approved for medicinal use in one form or another in the
majority of States. Due Process and fundamental fairness are at the heart of
this case. Boiled down to its essence, the question for this Court is whether a
sentence of life without parole is justified for a person who now has no
predicate felony convictions.”
Corvain Cooper was charged in the United
States District Court for the Western District of North Carolina with
conspiracy to distribute and possession with intent to distribute 1,000
kilograms or more of marijuana, and conspiracy to commit money laundering and
structuring transactions. A special
information was also filed against Cooper, alleging two prior felony
convictions for possession of drugs (one for marijuana, one for codeine cough
syrup) in the California state courts. The filing triggered a mandatory life
sentence without parole. The reason for
the unusually harsh sentence is the so-called “Three Strikes” law. These laws require
a person guilty of committing a drug felony and
two other previous drug felony convictions to serve a mandatory life
sentence in prison. The “Three
Strikes” law significantly increases the prison
sentences of persons convicted of a felony who
have been previously convicted of two or more violent crimes or drug felonies,
and limits the ability of these offenders to receive a punishment other than
a life sentence.
Mr. Cooper
tried appealing his conviction and sentence, stating that the sentence of life
for non-violent crimes was against his Eighth Amendment (Amendment VIII) of the
United States Constitution which prohibits the federal government from imposing
excessive bail, excessive fines, or cruel
and unusual punishments. However,
the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit upheld the case, and
the Supreme Court declined to even hear the case.
The State of California enacted Proposition
47 in 2014, which re-categorized several non-violent offenses as misdemeanors.
Prior to enacting Proposition 47, possession of marijuana was considered a felony.
This also allowed people who had prior felony convictions under the old statute
to vacate them.
Proposition 64 (the Adult Use of Marijuana
Act) was enacted on November 9, 2016, by the State of California which
legalized the use of recreational marijuana. This Act permitted certain people
who had been convicted of marijuana felony offenses to apply to vacate those
convictions and reclassify them as misdemeanors.
Adds
attorney Patrick Megaro, “I have been representing Mr. Cooper and I have said
from day one, that I am in this fight to represent Corvain Cooper no matter how
long it takes. Today, is yet another
example of my strong commitment.” Mr.
Megaro went on to add, “We need to quit playing political games and allow the
sentence to fit the crime, as both of these Propositions (47 and 64) favor
individuals, such as Corvain Cooper.”
Patrick
Megaro has also simultaneously filed a petition for commutation of sentence
with President Donald Trump on Corvain Cooper’s behalf, and has started a
petition on Change.org in support of the petition that already has over 3,000
supporters.
The
“Petition for Certiorari” filed on behalf of Corvain Cooper with the U.S.
Supreme Court should be available soon on the Court’s website at https://www.supremecourt.gov
under “Docket Search.”
A Wikipedia article on Three-Strikes Law is at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three-strikes_law
Background
The underlying
court cases are United States v. Cooper, 624 Fed.Appx. 819 (4th Cir. 2015), and
United States v. Cooper, 714 Fed.Appx. 259 (4th Cir. 2018). According to a
press release of the U.S. Attorney’s Office, “from
in or about 2004 through January 2013, Cooper was involved in a drug conspiracy
that trafficked marijuana from California to the Charlotte area. Court records
show that Cooper was charged with conspiracy to distribute and to possess with
intent to distribute at least one thousand kilograms of marijuana as well as
money laundering conspiracy and structuring financial transactions through
banking institutions to avoid IRS reporting requirements. Cooper, along with
two co-defendants, Evelyn LaChapelle and Natalia Wade, were convicted of all
charges on October 18, 2013, following a three-day trial.” He was sentenced to
life in prison on June 18, 2014. See
https://www.justice.gov/usao-wdnc/pr/california-drug-trafficker-sentenced-life-prison-drug-conspiracy-and-related-charges
For more
information, contact:
Patrick
Michael Megaro, Esq.
Halscott
Megaro, P.A.
1300 North
Semoran Boulevard, Suite 195
Orlando, FL
32807 USA
Phone: (407)
255-2164
pmegaro@halscottmegaro.com
